In vitro activity: JZL184 is a useful tool for studying the effects of endogenous 2-AG signaling. JZL184 displays time-dependent inhibition of MAGL and exhibits>300-fold selectivity for MAGL over FAAH in vitro. JZL184 does not interact with CB1 or CB2 receptors and does not inhibit the 2-AG biosynthetic enzymes diacylglycerol lipase-αand diacylglycerol lipase-β, or the arachidonic acid–mobilizing enzyme cytosolic phospholipase A2 group IVA.

Kinase Assay: Mouse brains are Dounce-homogenized in PBS, pH7.5, followed by a low-speed spin (1,400×, 5 min) to remove debris. The supernatant is then subjected to centrifugation (64,000×, 45 min) to provide the cytosolic fraction in the supernatant and the membrane fraction as a pellet. The pellet is washed and resuspended in PBS buffer by sonication. Total protein concentration in each fraction is determined using a protein assay kit. Samples are stored at -80 °C until use. Mouse brain membrane proteomes, are diluted to 1 mg/mL in PBS and pre-incubated with varying concentrations of inhibitors (1 nM to 10 mM) for 30 min at 37 °C before the addition of FP-rhodamine at a final concentration of 2 mM in a 50 mL total reaction volume. After 30 min at 25 °C, the reactions are quenched with 4×SDS-PAGE loading buffer, boiled for 5 min at 90 °C, subjected to SDS-PAGE and visualized in-gel using a flatbed fluorescence scanner.

Cell Assay: 1 × 105 cells (LOVO, Caco-2, SW480) are split into four-well chamber slides and incubated with culture medium containing BrdU for 4 h. BrdU staining is performed following the manufacturer’s instructions.

Nat Chem Biol. 2009 Jan;5(1):37-44; Cancer Lett. 2011 Aug 1;307(1):6-17.